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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish police have arrested a couple suspected of fraud for exaggerating the illness of their child during a public campaign seeking money to pay for her treatment.
A police spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press the arrest of the parents of 11-year-old Nadia Nerea, who has the rare disease trichothiodystrophy. They were arrested in their hometown in the northeastern region of Catalonia late on Wednesday night.
The girl's father, Fernando Blanco, admitted in a recent interview on Spanish television station Antena 3 that he and his wife had exaggerated the seriousness of his daughter's illness to generate interest in her case. He also asked for forgiveness from people who had made donations. On Sunday, the couple posted a statement on the Facebook page created to ask for donations for their daughter saying they would return all the money they had received.
Beside using social media, the couple had made televised appearances to ask for help to pay for their daughter's medical costs.
The police spokesman, who spoke under condition of anonymity in line with police policy, said that the number of people who donated to the campaign was unknown but likely to be in the thousands. Spanish media say that the girl's parents had received around 150,000 euros ($161,000) in donations.
The regional court says that police have also searched the house of the couple in the Catalan town of Seu d'Urgell.
According to the U.S. National Institute for Health, trichothiodystrophy is a rare genetic disease whose severity can span from brittle hair in mild cases to intellectual disabilities and even death.
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